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Windows 8.1 Preview

73 points| cyanbane | 12 years ago |blogs.windows.com | reply

87 comments

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[+] skrebbel|12 years ago|reply
I like it. Nearly all the features shown off in that video make me go "want!". The additional start screen organizing features are precisely what i'm looking for.

Now all I want is more and better fullscreen apps. Not the "your favourite news source" apps. They're bullshit on phones and they're even more bullshit on PCs or big tablets. Real, useful apps. Like a barebones spreadsheet that fits in a sidebar. Zen-writing text editor. Extensions for IE-in-fullscreen-mode. Music player that doesn't suck and doesn't want to be all "cloud".

They're getting real close here. I really hope app vendors follow suit.

(p.s. if you try Win8 without a touchscreen, you didn't really try it at all)

[+] lurkinggrue|12 years ago|reply
I can't get past the fact that I hate full screen at all.
[+] ladzoppelin|12 years ago|reply
I actually really enjoy Windows 8 and will probably just wait for 8.1 to be released. Its cool their listening to their customers but I hope they don't force the start menu back on everyone. At least boot to desktop will be awesome considering my "D" key is broken and clicking the "Desktop" tile takes an eternity.
[+] jtreminio|12 years ago|reply
How did you type this?
[+] MikusR|12 years ago|reply
If you move the Desktop tile to the top of first tile group then you can just press "Enter to launch it"
[+] RyanZAG|12 years ago|reply
I clicked through to the live feed on http://channel9.msdn.com/ from the link there. I was right in time for the presenter to click on the new windows button which makes an incredibly jarring animation of tons of randomly colored tiles pop up over the screen. The presenter then says "not at all jarring ... not at all jarring". Sure, right, I think you need to get out of that reality distortion field - it's not working.
[+] counterpointer|12 years ago|reply
Have you actually used Windows Phone or Windows 8 for any length of time? The animations are very subtle on actual devices and work very well with the flat look.

Can't speak for the animations being screencasted across the internet via streaming video though which can introduce lag, jitter, FPS drops and artifacts, especially for fast moving scenes like animations. I'll reserve my judgment till I install the preview.

[+] philliphaydon|12 years ago|reply
REALLY hope I can turn off the start button.
[+] mariusmg|12 years ago|reply
Same here. That thing is useless.
[+] swalsh|12 years ago|reply
Its impossible to make everyone happy
[+] dm8|12 years ago|reply
It still feels like an OS designed purely for tablet computing.
[+] cyanbane|12 years ago|reply
I think it is amazing a company as big as MS has converged work station, tablet, phone and Xbox One UIs in such a short amount of time. Not saying I like all the changes, just amazed at the short amount of time it has taken.
[+] xradionut|12 years ago|reply
I wanted to shout "Get your touch screen shit out of my server rack." Then I realize that I can run Server 2012 without a GUI or not. (evil smile)

The one good thing about Windows 8 in my world is that it's forcing people to make decisions they have been putting off for years.

[+] pmarsh|12 years ago|reply
As well as the convergence of tablets/laptops/PC/touch screens.

I gave my folks a touchscreen all-in-one PC and it's surprising how much you will touch the screen once it's available.

[+] davidcollantes|12 years ago|reply
Oh dear.

I have used Windows 8 (work on IT, I am forced to). Windows 8.1 seems to look, and behave just the same as Windows 8. Adoption not happening here.

[+] iaskwhy|12 years ago|reply
That's curious. If it looks and behaves exactly the same then adoption (as in updating) shouldn't be a problem.
[+] ChikkaChiChi|12 years ago|reply
Bing integrated all over the place? Does Microsoft honestly think they'd lost enough market share that they are no longer viable candidates for antitrust lawsuits?
[+] jbigelow76|12 years ago|reply
Microsoft never had enough market share in search to warrant antitrust lawsuits[1].

[1]That doesn't mean the EU won't use totally unrelated market share stats from 5 years ago to continue treating Microsoft like a money pinata.

[+] revscat|12 years ago|reply
Obivously, and I'd argue rightfully. Microsoft HAS lost market share, especially if you include tablet/smartphone OSs in the mix. I cannot seem to find it now, but not too long ago I ran across a survey which included portable devices into their calculations of OS marketshare percentages, and determined that Microsoft now has a minority share of the global OS market when those numbers are included.

Microsoft still dominates on the desktop, but the desktop doesn't matter like it once did. I doubt that the government will express much interest here, and rightfully so.

[+] ChikkaChiChi|12 years ago|reply
I guess I'm a little shocked at how willingly everyone just thinks this is ok. Bundling like this is not in the best interest of the consumer. Why would interested in artificially inflating a company's market share in an unrelated space because you forget to disable it?

Are you going to be ok if Microsoft introduces ad tiles in Metro?

[+] russellsprouts|12 years ago|reply
You can turn all of the integration off, if you choose. Europe may still go after them.
[+] soundgecko|12 years ago|reply
I doubt even the EU will act against the only meager competition to Google's absolute dominance. Not to mention that devices with Google as default are the majority these days because of iOS, Android on phones and tablets with declining PC sales. Bing is only default in IE which in nullified in EU because of the browser ballot, Google pays off Mozilla and some OEMs to have it as the default.
[+] throwaway10001|12 years ago|reply
Bing controls less than 20% in US and probably less than 5% in EU.

What I'm surprised is why EU, at least, allowed Google to buy more market share by paying Firefox

[+] kryten|12 years ago|reply
Available on MSDN subscriber downloads in x64 ISO form now.

Downloading at a pitiful 600k/sec :(

[+] moheeb|12 years ago|reply
Maybe this shows a generational gap...but I don't think I could ever consider downloading at 600k/sec pitiful.
[+] kryten|12 years ago|reply
Installed.

Don't like it at all. The apps screen is a disaster and it's clunkier than Windows 8 was originally.

Not impressed and rather annoyed that I wasted another evening.

[+] kryptiskt|12 years ago|reply
Project Spark looks like a fun toy.
[+] Freaky|12 years ago|reply
Can anyone confirm whether or not this includes ReFS support? That's probably more important to me than any other feature 8.1 could possibly offer, having encountered silent data corruption just a few months ago (thanks, WD).
[+] ayi|12 years ago|reply
ReFS is includes since Windows 8's initial release but only on Server editions.
[+] MWil|12 years ago|reply
the video doesn't show a single desktop improvement. as a purely desktop user (never once having used a metro app), is there anything for me in 8.1?
[+] kryptiskt|12 years ago|reply
You can boot to desktop, turn of the hot corners, and there's a start button with a nifty right-click menu. So there's something.
[+] kvb|12 years ago|reply
I'm sure there are several, though I don't know if there's a comprehensive list. For instance, DPI scaling can now be set per-monitor.
[+] godgod|12 years ago|reply
Will 8.1 still come with the NSA backdoor. If so, I do not want.

Try Linux.

[+] lurkinggrue|12 years ago|reply
They don't have to back door your OS. They just tap the fiber backbones.
[+] counterpointer|12 years ago|reply
Honest question, isn't there NSA written code in Linux via the SELinux patches that were integrated?